Like others have stated, I don't think the x2 x3 has anything to do with people leaving.
I can only speak for myself. The wipe killed my interest in this game and it has never returned. My play time has reduced by 95%. In fact over the last few weeks I do little more than log on and feed my tames.
I've decided I'm not investing anymore time in a game that may wipe again.

I've not lost a tame since going to a 5 wall high wood platform with only a short railing around it and with a two section L shaped ramp. I don't have a gate at all, just an opening. I do post 6 bears just inside the opening but they only aggro not even once a month. Only the horses and pigs are set to passive. I've not lost anything since prior to the wipe.
It's not a building, it's a platform on 6 4 wall cube pillars. Nothing has fallen through since the wipe but if anything did, it would just be outside. No rebuilding.

Or maybe its a low pop because people quit every day.
I have never regained my interest since the wipe. I came back and rebuilt, the whole time wondering why I'm doing it. We rebuild for another wipe? That's just the thinking of a progression minded MMOer.
What was that comment from the devs a ways back? Something like "we are not really too concerned about how many are playing the game right now".
As far as a merge... I PVP in most games but PVP in this game looks like a grief fest. If servers merge, I won't be around.

Yeah, the fog is way over blown.
I think Atlas has far too much bad weather in general. I live in the area the pirates sailed and it's bright and sunny 98% of the time, with a daily rain shower during a few month period.

On my island... never see cobras anymore (that's awesome!), crocs are very rare now, far less of everything else, but for birds. Some times I can ride half way across the island without seeing much of anything. In the past I would farm elephants but can only do that in waves now. I run a big loop killing what I see then go do something else.
Over all I think the changes are good, it just makes for slower leveling. I was over ran with baddies before. Also, and keep in mind I'm on NA, the server is running great now (M8) (N2). Better than I ever remember. I would guess spawn rates play into that, along with only 10 people on the grid.
I have the same land on both NA and EU. NA is currently running great. Then I flip over to EU and it's rubber banding and the rolling sea comes to a full stop every 8 seconds, at least last night. So all you guys stay over there on EU. Thanks
So... 10 people on grid and 1/3 the people on the server and it runs great. 30 people on grid and three times the people on the server and it runs terrible. Maybe Atlas needs a fatter pipe and/or hardware upgrades, not just more optimizing.

We're not talking about breaking the current grid. That was maybe not the best way to state it.. We are talking about adding dividers within the current grid for claiming. Much like you have right here but smaller. A full map overlay would never line up so perfectly as this picture. So a smaller grid but just like this and you claim sections of it. Or a group could together claim enough sections to have a block just like this.

In most games yes, but not in real estate. And this game is already on a square grid system. So, I'd just add a square grid within the current grid.
This idea would be second to cutting each island by hand, but that would take a lot of work.

Slicing the main grid into grids was a suggestion in the forum prior to the current system being released.
It would not be perfect and some grids would be less usable than others but you would not have over laps. I'd bet at some point we end up there.

One only needed to read the forum over the last month or two to know this was going to happen. I logged in the day the EU server came up, set my home server to a lawless and have yet to step foot on a claimed/claimable island.
The forum was of posts about slavery, no landlords or just make a few small fixes to the old system.
The only way they will get players in to the claim system is to add a poison pill to lawless. An act that I'm sure will backfire on them. This dev team really needs someone that has a better understanding of human nature / their player base. At some point this dev team needs to understand that they keep coming up with ideas that people are not interested in.
Many people love this game and yet hate the direction it keeps heading.